Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN VITTORIO NEVER EXPECTED
Rachel wanted to leave for Indiana immediately.
Dominic refused.
“Going there is what he wants.”
“My father and sister are in that house.”
“And if you drive into an ambush, they have three hostages.”
Rachel turned on him.
“I am not one of your employees right now.”
“I know.”
“Then stop ordering me around.”
Dominic met her anger without reacting.
“Fine.”
He placed his phone in her hand.
“You decide.”
Rachel looked at it.
“What?”
“Call your sister again. Listen carefully.”
She called.
Megan answered after six rings.
Her breathing sounded wrong.
Too controlled.
Rachel closed her eyes.
“Megan, are you okay?”
“Yes.”
“Is Dad there?”
“Yes.”
“Can I talk to him?”
A pause.
“He’s sleeping.”
Rachel knew immediately.
Her father never slept before midnight.
Not since her mother died.
“What room are you in?”
“The kitchen.”
Rachel pictured her father’s farmhouse.
“What’s on the refrigerator?”
Silence.
Then Megan answered.
“The calendar.”
Wrong.
Their father’s refrigerator had broken three months earlier.
The replacement had stainless-steel doors and magnets no longer stuck to it.
Rachel looked at Dominic.
He saw the realization.
“You’re not at Dad’s house.”
Megan began crying.
Someone disconnected the call.
Dominic took the phone.
“A controlled recording environment.”
Rachel exhaled shakily.
“They were never there.”
“They may still have them.”
“But the background was fake.”
“Yes.”
Rachel forced herself to think.
That was what Dominic needed from her.
Not panic.
Observation.
“What did you hear?”
She closed her eyes.
“A hum.”
“Electrical?”
“No. Mechanical. Steady.”
“Traffic?”
“No.”
Rachel replayed Megan’s voice in her head.
“There was a bell.”
Dominic waited.
“Three notes.”
Elena looked up.
“What kind?”
Rachel hummed them.
Elena went pale.
“I know that sound.”
Dominic turned.
“Where?”
“St. Agnes.”
Dominic frowned.
“The abandoned convent?”
Elena nodded.
The Marino family had owned an old convent outside Chicago for decades through a charitable trust.
Vittorio had once used the property for meetings.
“It has a clock tower,” Elena said. “The bell mechanism plays three notes every quarter hour.”
Dominic was already moving.
Rachel grabbed his arm.
“If you go in with twenty armed men, Vittorio will see you coming.”
He looked down at her hand.
Rachel released him.
“He expects you to respond like a Mafia boss.”
Dominic’s eyes held hers.
“What do you suggest?”
“Send the maid.”
Elena almost laughed from disbelief.
Dominic didn’t.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because you are not walking into Vittorio’s building alone.”
“He doesn’t think I matter.”
“He kidnapped your family because you matter.”
“To you.”
Silence.
Rachel realized what she had said.
So did Elena.
Dominic’s expression didn’t change.
Rachel corrected herself.
“To this situation.”
Dominic ignored the correction.
“Still no.”
Oliver tugged Rachel’s sleeve.
He held up a paper figure.
The father.
Then the maid.
He placed them side by side.
Dominic stared at it.
Rachel raised an eyebrow.
“Your son agrees with me.”
Oliver nodded solemnly.
For the first time that night, Dominic’s mouth almost curved.
“Traitor.”
Oliver actually smiled.
Small.
Brief.
But real.
Elena’s eyes filled.
The moment vanished quickly.
They formed a plan.
Rachel would approach St. Agnes from the front.
Dominic and a small team would enter through a drainage passage Elena remembered from years ago.
No electronic communications.
No trackers Vittorio could detect.
Rachel wore a small analog transmitter sewn into her coat lining.
Dominic objected to her going until the final minute.
Rachel finally looked him directly in the eyes.
“You trusted me with Oliver when nobody else knew what he was trying to say.”
“That wasn’t a choice.”
“This is.”
She paused.
“Trust me now.”
Dominic nodded once.
St. Agnes stood thirty miles west of the city.
Its chapel windows were boarded.
The bell tower leaned slightly.
Rachel entered through the main doors at 11:18 p.m.
A single lamp burned inside.
Vanessa sat in the front pew.
She wore the same emerald silk dress from the engagement dinner.
Perfect hair.
Perfect posture.
As though she had simply stepped out of the ballroom.
“Rachel.”
Rachel stopped.
“Where are my family?”
“Safe.”
“Show me.”
Vanessa smiled.
“You developed courage very quickly.”
“No.”
Rachel looked around.
“I’m still terrified.”
That seemed to surprise Vanessa.
Rachel continued.
“The difference is I’m tired of letting terrified people pretend fear makes them weak.”
Vanessa’s smile faded.
“You think Dominic cares about you?”
“This isn’t about Dominic.”
“It always becomes about Dominic.”
There was something personal in the way she said it.
Rachel noticed.
“You hate him.”
Vanessa laughed softly.
“I was supposed to marry him.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Vanessa stood.
“My father spent twenty-seven years building alliances for Vittorio Marino. Then Dominic inherited everything and decided men like my father were outdated.”
Rachel understood.
“Your family lost money.”
“My family lost power.”
“And you decided Oliver should pay for that?”
For the first time, Vanessa looked uncomfortable.
“He was never supposed to get hurt.”
“You grabbed him hard enough to leave marks.”
“He wouldn’t let go of those drawings.”
“Because he was trying to save his father.”
Vanessa’s mouth tightened.
She stepped closer.
“You really believe this ends with Dominic rescuing everyone?”
Rachel said nothing.
Vanessa whispered, “He doesn’t even know the worst part.”
“Which is?”
“Vittorio didn’t choose me to marry Dominic.”
Rachel frowned.
“Who did?”
Vanessa smiled again.
“Elena.”
Rachel went still.
Behind the chapel wall, Dominic heard the words through the crude transmitter.
Elena, waiting with him, closed her eyes.
Dominic looked at her.
“Elena?”
She whispered, “I can explain.”
Vanessa continued inside the chapel.
“His dead wife selected me.”
Rachel stared.
“That makes no sense.”
“It will.”
Vanessa walked toward the altar.
“She needed someone Dominic would eventually discover.”
“Why?”
“Because Elena never believed Vittorio could be beaten from the outside.”
Rachel’s heart sank.
Vanessa glanced toward a dark doorway.
“So she helped build the trap.”
A light came on.
Megan sat tied to a chair.
Rachel gasped.
Her father was beside her.
Alive.
Then a third chair became visible.
Salvatore Rizzo sat in it.
Blood ran from his forehead.
Rachel stared.
The supposed traitor looked terrified.
Vanessa smiled.
“Did nobody wonder why the security chief left his own voice on a recorder?”
Salvatore shook his head desperately.
“Rachel, don’t believe—”
A gunshot silenced him.
Not Vanessa’s gun.
The shot came from above.
Vittorio stood on the balcony.
He looked down at Rachel.
Then toward the wall hiding Dominic.
As if he knew exactly where his son was.
“Come out, Dominic.”
No one moved.
Vittorio smiled.
“I know Elena showed you the drainage tunnel.”
Dominic slowly stepped into the chapel.
Elena followed.
Vanessa looked surprised.
Vittorio didn’t.
“Good.”
He looked at his son.
“Now ask your wife why she knew Vanessa would be in your life before Vanessa ever met you.”
May you like
Dominic turned to Elena.
Her silence answered before she did.
